As a social worker we have an ethical duty to the clients that we serve to protect their rights and follow the standards of the National Association of Social Workers code of ethics. One strategy to help guide ethical practice was to be familiar with agency policies and the National Association of Social Workers Code of ethics. When we engage with our clients we are supposed to show unconditional positive regard to them in this setting the professional was unethical the entire visit and her actions will cause so adversity for the client. The social workers action could cause Sara to prematurely stop her visits because of fear and being forced to do something she doesn’t feel comfortable doing. This type of unethical behavior has the potential in the long run cause her to suffer.

The responsibility of the social worker is to ensure that the rights of the client should come before anyone else. As the social worker you should have the client’s best interest. In this case the social worker was more concerned with her colleague’s research and paying less attention to the concerns that the client had which was unethical. Sara has recently been hospitalized for depression and by the social worker forcing what she wants can cause Sara to have a set back (Plummer, Makris & Brocksen, 2014). Sara repeatedly said she had concerns about others knowing her business. The social worker used money to support how good of an opportunity this would be for her. Nothing about her actions was therapeutic or helpful and it also will affect the trust that Sara has in the professional relationship.

There will be some harm in this situation and the actions of the social worker contributed to the cause. It could leave Sara feeling like she didn’t care about about why she was there but more so what she wanted. There are some privacy issues because she wanted to share patient information without client consent. She also freely wants to discuss Sara’s condition for her colleague’s research project that should be confidential. Clients that participate in research are entitled to several different rights and protections based on fundamental ethical principles of respect for autonomy of the person. The rights include: give voluntary, informed consent; receive comprehensive and understandable information about the nature, goals, risks and benefits of the research the social worker covered none of this (Ries, 2007). When the social worker was talking to Sara her facial expressions and behavior was not professional or of an ethical level.

References

Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., & Brocksen S. M. (Eds.). (2014). Sessions: Case histories. Retrieved from Baltimore, MD: Laureate International Universities Publishing. [Vital Source e-reader].

Ries, N. M. (2007). Growing up as a research subject: Ethical and legal issues in birth cohort studies involving genetic research. Health Law Journal, 15, 1–41.